


After the Kiss

by EarlGrayJasmine



Category: Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Fluff, spoilers for Starcrossed parts I-III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27884905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarlGrayJasmine/pseuds/EarlGrayJasmine
Summary: Immediately after their kiss in Wild Cards part II. John isn't up for much more than talking, but that's never been Shayera's strong suit.
Relationships: Shayera Hol/John Stewart
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	After the Kiss

Shayera broke the kiss. Gently, fingertips to his bare chest, she pushed John away. He had found the zipper to her corseted top on; she was pulling at his blanket. She could hear the soft beeps of John's heartbeat on the monitor. They rose in time with the thrill of her own pulse quickening in her chest. They had to stop.

Pressing her forehead to his, she could feel his regret, his longing. Or maybe it was just her own. She was surprised by how much she didn't want to let go.

"Your heart stopped an hour ago," she said. "We can't."

"I know," said John. She could hear a sadness in his voice.

She stood and looked toyingly at John. "But once you're better we'll find some time to sneak away." She could see in his eyes how much he hoped they would.

Herself, she wasn't so certain. Oh sure she wanted to—if his injury wasn't stopping them, she would be out of her tights already—but it had, and so she had another chance. Shayera had one more chance not to fall for him, not completely.

She was on her way out of the room, before the zipping feeling in her chest got the better of her, when John said, “Wait."

She turned back.

"Stay," he said.

"For what?"

"I don't know" said John, “To talk."

"I'm really more an action kind of girl.”

"I hadn't noticed." He smirked.

She gave a playful frown, but it hid a much deeper worry. _What did they have to talk about?_

“I should go,” she said a little sadly.

“Is the League expecting you?”

Should she lie? She considered it, but found herself wanting to tell him the truth. “No.”

“Then humor me,” said John.

What choice did she have? Shayera felt a flutter in her stomach that she hoped was more nerves than affection as she sat down on the other side of his bed. Part of her wanted to be swept under those sheets like a riptide, and part of her wanted to run for the door. The rest sat still, picking at a thread and flicking her eyes to John every so often, waiting for what to do next.

“So…” she said, looking around. “How does this work?”

John raised an eyebrow. “Talking?”

She paused, unsure she wanted to give up what felt like a secret. “Thanagarians aren’t exactly known for being a heartfelt people,” she said. There was still so much about Earth culture she didn’t understand.

“You just ask each other questions.”

“Like what? ‘What’s you’re favorite color?’” said Shayera.

He looked her straight in the eye and deadpanned, “green.”

Shayera flushed. Was she really so bad at this? It was going to be a long night.

“I was thinking more along the lines of, ‘if we were on Thanagar, where would you take me for our first date?’”

“So we’re dating now?”

John shrugged. He didn’t want to scare her away. “Pretend we are.”

“I would take you to a bar. We’d get drunk on flurb, I’d start a bar fight, and brawl until we were the last ones standing,” said Shayera.

“I guess I meant, if you had one night to show me your planet, where would you take me?”

“Oh,” said Shayera. Her shoulders fell.

John sat up and grabbed her hand. “Hey, I’m sorry. If you don’t want to talk about Thanagar, you don’t have to. I can’t imagine being trapped so far from home.”

She wasn’t trapped, although John couldn’t know that. She’d known where she was headed, known how different it would be, but it had still been overwhelming. The isolation she had felt those first few weeks had been unbearable. But that wasn’t what troubled her.

The sullenness that had overtaken her wasn’t over thoughts of home. Her mind had begun to imagine John with her on Thanagar—the places she would take him, the food they would eat, the fights they would win together. And also before she could stop it, it thought of Hro. Her commander. Her fiancee.

She pictured Hro finding her in the arms of a human, one of the humans she was here to surveil no less. Hro would fight him for her. It would be brutal. With an acute pang of panic Shayera realized she wasn’t entirely sure who she wanted to win.

She shook that idea from her mind. John would never see Thanagar. With any luck when the invasion came, John and Hro would never meet. Hro would never know the hero in green was any different from the others.

“I don’t mind” she said. “I grew up in the capital city, Tri’taar. It’s like a cranky version of Metropolis I guess. Everything’s tall, everyone’s yelling. If someone flies into you, you get to punch them. I miss that. For our date? I’d like to just walk around.”

“Really?”

“You’d see the city and I’d—” Shayera cut herself off. John raised an eyebrow inviting her to continue. “I’d get to blend in.”

“I refuse to believe all Thanagarians are as beautiful as you are,” said John. “Or as brash.”

Shayera smiled. “You’d better.”

She was surprised to find herself stretching out beside him. She laid down next to John, chin propped in her hand. When had she gotten so comfortable here?

“I’m the only one of us without a secret identity,” she said. John seemed puzzled. “The rest of you take off your outfits and you’re normal people. Really muscular normal people, but all the same. Even Superman has a civilian life somehow. And J’onn can shapeshift. It’s hard to hide these.” Shayera unfurled her full wingspan. The infirmary had a high ceiling but even still the longest of her feathers grazed it.

“Hmm,” said John. She could see the gears turning in his mind but she wasn’t sure he would get anywhere. She hadn’t.

“I mostly don’t mind,” she said, although sometimes she minded very much. “Just remember that if you take me on date here, there’s no sneaking me into a movie.”

“Do I get to?” said John. “Take you on a date?”

“That depends. What did you have in mind?”

“No fair,” he said. “Yours was theoretical. I have to follow through.”

“Just say the first thing that comes to mind.” She was curious to hear, more than she wanted to be.

“I think you had the right idea. In our line of work we don’t get a lot of quiet,” said John. “So how about a quiet night in, some place with a view, nobody to bother us.”

Shayera looked from him to the window beside the bed where the world turned beneath them. Like the ocean or a clear night sky, it never ceased to be beautiful.

“This is our first date?” she asked.

John shifted under the blanket. “You’re right. It’s stupid.”

Shayera thought about how comfortable she was on the small infirmary bed. Not physically, but in a much deeper way. Outside of a good fight and her other duties as a hero, when was the last time she had felt so at peace on Earth? When was the last time she had been happy?

She knew the answer immediately. _With John._

Shayera grabbed John by the chin and kissed him. “It’s perfect.”

* * *

When the rest of the League arrived back at the Watchtower, Batman discreetly volunteered to check on John. He certainly didn’t need Flash being the one to find…whatever he was about to find. He had run the scenarios.

He found more or less what he thought he would, but the details were unexpected. For one thing, they still had their clothes on.

John was asleep in the infirmary bed. Shayera had dozed off beside him on top of the blanket. One of her wings pooled on the floor, but the other draped protectively over him. The only piece of costume she was missing, Batman noted, was her mask.


End file.
